Barra 400e mods

Hello !
Have any of you guys already opened the Barra 400e and try to mod it out ?

In one of the youtube's videos when Airgun Nation interviewed the engeneer of the gun. He stated that MANY airsoft parts would fit in there and that we could change almost anything (barrel, buttpad, piston, battery, motor, spring ...)

I myself have started to look for ways to make that crappy mag a little bit less frustrating. I got a couple of ideas but it would involve a lot of essays and errors with 3d printing...

Also i'm looking for an exploded view of the 400e parts or at least a parts manual.
NOTE : I don't care about the warranty ;)
 
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I havent opened mine up yet, because I am still learning how to upgrade these types of guns.
I asked barra support for parts diagram, they dont plan on releasing it till they get spare parts available, from what I understand.

Helpful to check out the /airsoft reddit beginners guide and V2 gearbox guide, airsoft GI's youtube channel is another helpful resource to figure out how to dissemble M4 style AEG's. This will help you understand what the parts inside the gearbox do and how different parts have different performance characteristics.

Airsoft parts are kind of hard to figure out what is compatible and what is not. Some upgrades arent plug and play, they require you to do some gunsmithing. If you have a local airsoft shop you can hire a tech to upgrade your gun.
The 400E uses a "version 2" style gearbox which is a style of gearboxes used in M4 style airsoft guns.
You should be able to use V2 gearbox upgrade parts such as different ratio gears, pistons, piston heads, cylinders, motors, springs, and mosfets.
But the barra has proprietary parts such as the inner barrel, nozzle, "hopup" housing and bucking, and Im assuming the tappet plate for the .177 bb instead of 6mm bb.
The top of the gearbox where the upper slides over is bigger than normal V2 gearboxes so some new uppers probably wont fit.
You can use most airsoft furniture compatible with M4 style airsoft guns, but of course depends on the part.

When choosing parts for modding you got to ask yourself what characteristic do you want to change about the gun? Typically when modding AEG's you are choosing between Rate Of Fire or Velocity, unfortunately you cant have both. Some choose a balance between the two, but depends what you want.
Im making a parts list to upgrade my 400E for higher rate of fire and accuracy. Im going to be using 13:1 gear set instead of the stock 30:1,a reduced power spring to get to 250fps, and a mosfet for better trigger and pre-cocking function. This will improve the lock time of the shot and a faster RPM

If you are looking for even more velocity than the stock 380FPS, I wouldn't bother unless you are willing to spend $300-500 on a HPA engine. To get more velocity out of an AEG you would have to put a higher power spring and higher ratio gears, it would increase the lock time a bunch and reduce the full auto RPM.
If you do want to drop the money on a HPA engine and custom parts, it would make for one hell of a build, something that would fill the gap in the market for high velocity HPA BB machine guns that the Drozd left. The HPA engine would allow you to have higher velocities and high RPM's.

Good Luck on the modding!
 
Thanks for the tips !

For now I'm more worried about it breaking some gears and me not knowing how to repair it. I don't like the idea of shipping this back to the U.S. knowing what's happening here in Canada with the new law comming, I may never get it back... So I need to be able te repair this by myself.

I think the balance between Accuracy / fps / rate of fire is already just fine like it is out of the box but I'm that type of guy who will eventually dismantle the whole thing just to see what's inside :rolleyes: And to know the all the possibilities. Each one of my air guns so far has been modified one way or another and I keep track of everything I did/wan't to do in searate folders in my computer along with schematics, parts lists and any usefull info available.

One thing I would like to mod on the 400e is to be able to uncrew the fake supressor and it would also unscrew the lenght of barrel under it.
Shooting a shorter gun would be handy when I shoot in the basement during winter.
It would also significantly brind down the fps while I don't need it at 3 - 4 yards.
I already have an idea on how to achieve this but I for sure won't try if I can't replace parts that I may break for good.

So I guess I'll have to chomp at the bit waiting for Barra to release parts and schematics (hoping the thing won't fail in between), I will take a look at the M4 platform you spoke about. I am quite the gunsmith when we talk about airguns but airsoft is a whole new universe to me. Just knowing I'm able to replace parts is already more than enough ... FOR NOW :cool::devilish: ...
 
I havent opened mine up yet, because I am still learning how to upgrade these types of guns.
I asked barra support for parts diagram, they dont plan on releasing it till they get spare parts available, from what I understand.

Helpful to check out the /airsoft reddit beginners guide and V2 gearbox guide, airsoft GI's youtube channel is another helpful resource to figure out how to dissemble M4 style AEG's. This will help you understand what the parts inside the gearbox do and how different parts have different performance characteristics.

Airsoft parts are kind of hard to figure out what is compatible and what is not. Some upgrades arent plug and play, they require you to do some gunsmithing. If you have a local airsoft shop you can hire a tech to upgrade your gun.
The 400E uses a "version 2" style gearbox which is a style of gearboxes used in M4 style airsoft guns.
You should be able to use V2 gearbox upgrade parts such as different ratio gears, pistons, piston heads, cylinders, motors, springs, and mosfets.
But the barra has proprietary parts such as the inner barrel, nozzle, "hopup" housing and bucking, and Im assuming the tappet plate for the .177 bb instead of 6mm bb.
The top of the gearbox where the upper slides over is bigger than normal V2 gearboxes so some new uppers probably wont fit.
You can use most airsoft furniture compatible with M4 style airsoft guns, but of course depends on the part.

When choosing parts for modding you got to ask yourself what characteristic do you want to change about the gun? Typically when modding AEG's you are choosing between Rate Of Fire or Velocity, unfortunately you cant have both. Some choose a balance between the two, but depends what you want.
Im making a parts list to upgrade my 400E for higher rate of fire and accuracy. Im going to be using 13:1 gear set instead of the stock 30:1,a reduced power spring to get to 250fps, and a mosfet for better trigger and pre-cocking function. This will improve the lock time of the shot and a faster RPM

If you are looking for even more velocity than the stock 380FPS, I wouldn't bother unless you are willing to spend $300-500 on a HPA engine. To get more velocity out of an AEG you would have to put a higher power spring and higher ratio gears, it would increase the lock time a bunch and reduce the full auto RPM.
If you do want to drop the money on a HPA engine and custom parts, it would make for one hell of a build, something that would fill the gap in the market for high velocity HPA BB machine guns that the Drozd left. The HPA engine would allow you to have higher velocities and high RPM's.

Good Luck on the modding!
We're can I get the HPA motor ?
 
Hope this helps someone. I recently took my 400e into a local airsoft store and had them go over the whole thing. They upgraded the motor and gears in my 400e. Here are links to what they used:

Overall the gun is a little faster rpm, and sounds great. I may try upgrading the 120 spring next to a 135